Beautiful Cars & Trucks

[Schmidt Meister]

20 minutes ago, DAKA said:

That looks like it's from the J C Whitney catalog...

I found it on a web site that only posts car stuff and he seems to research his posts pretty well. I don't think he would post anything from the J C Whitney catalog unless he notated it but I don't do his fact-checking so i can't verify. But he's been running a d@mn good web site for many, many years. Mind you, I'm not saying it's not but it would seriously surprise me.

[Eric]

[Eric]

[tous]

Looks very much like a  Stradale, but I don't think that it is.

Steering wheel is on the wrong side. 

It's obviously set up for racing.

To the left of the instrument pod, you can see the convenient in-race bottle opener.

 

 

[railfancwb]

8 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

This 944 S (year unknown) came from the custom shop truck of German Porsche specialist, 914-Boxergarage. Like a Singer, it was built from the best-of bin of Porsche parts, though with an emphasis on utility over performance. By the sounds of things, it might be reasonably capable too.
Its oak-floored bed measures 81 inches long, making it longer than all but the biggest bed on the 2023 Ford F-150. It has a tailgate, backup camera, and tow hitch, though the owner doesn't say anything about its tow capacity. The seller says both rear axles are powered though, and that it uses a rear-mounted transaxle from an Audi 200 Turbo. All three axles have brakes, so it can safely stop even while carrying a load like the scooter shown in photos.
For power, this Porsche pickup uses the 3.0-liter four-cylinder from a 968. It doesn't say if it's turbo or naturally aspirated, though you'd probably want the turbo if you're using it like a truck. It's hidden behind a front end from a 944 S2 with 924 Carrera GT headlights, and borrows its wheels from a 993 Turbo. The paint is throwback Continental Orange, which is a highly coveted shade on '70s 911s. Its cab features a custom targa roof and leather seats, with orange stitching, and heating on the driver's side.
914-Boxergarage says the whole shebang took 26 years to build, with around 2,500 hours of labor invested. The Porsche has been approved for road use by the notorious German TÜV, which means you can be sure the work is high-quality. It's priced accordingly too, with the seller asking the equivalent of $189,500.
Yes, that's nearly double the price of a 2023 Ram TRX, but it's actually a steal as weirdo six-wheeled trucks go. A Hennessey Velociraptor for example, runs $400,000.

Has a classic Vespa in the bed. Close color match. What’s not to like?

[Schmidt Meister]

This is an awesome story, imho.

Gail Wise unknowingly became the first ever Mustang owner when she bought her skylight blue Pony on April 15, 1964, a Wednesday, in Detroit, Michigan, two days before the public even had a chance to see its debut at the World Fair in New York. She was 22 years old, had just graduated from college and had gotten a job as a 3rd grade school teacher. She needed a reliable car to get to and from work. She traded in a $400 Chevy, and she borrowed the rest from her parents to cover the $3,419 price for the car, which was, at that time, over half of her teacher’s salary of $5,100 a year, but understood the car was special. When she got to the dealership, she told the salesman she wanted a convertible but there wasn’t one on the floor. He told her to follow him to the back room where they had the car she bought, the dealership was using it to drive around. “When I drove it down the street, it was like I was a celebrity,” Wise said.
Gail and her husband, Tom, drove the Mustang until 1979 when it started having mysterious problems. “Tom would say, ‘I’ll fix it next week.’ Of course, next week turned into twenty-seven years and four children later,” shared Wise. The couple built an additional garage so they could keep the car, but it sat under a pile of storage for over two decades.
When Tom retired and made time to work on repairing the old Pony, a Google search showed him that the “first ever Mustang owner” bought his car on Thursday April 16th. He and Gail knew that wasn’t right. Fortunately, the couple kept all the original paperwork and documentation from the day Gail purchased it. After some searching in their basement, Tom recovered the documentation that would ultimately become proof that Gail Wise was the first person ever to buy a Ford Mustang.
“We had everything. We didn’t know it was anything special. But we kept the new car invoice, the registered owner’s manual. Tom’s a saver,” said Gail.
So they gathered the paperwork from the sale on Wednesday, April 15th and called up Ford.
Since then, Gail has been recognized as the official first owner of a Mustang. She and Tom travel with the car to auto shows all over the country and enjoy the public spotlight. “I feel like a movie star at 72!,” Wise said. However, Wise has noticed something odd about how the media portrays her: “I think it’s silly when I go on the Internet and all the headlines say, “The first Mustang owner was a WOMAN” she said. “I never felt like I was beneath any man. I remember the sales man telling me that the Mustang was more of a muscle car, but I said, ‘Girls like to have fun, too.’”

The car is estimated to be worth $350,000 to $450,000 today.

Interview with Gail and Tom Wise - 6:35:

The first Mustangs were built in Ford's Dearborn, Michigan factory on March 9 1964 and the car was first shown to the public on April 17 at the New York World's Fair. The first-generation Ford Mustang was manufactured by Ford from March 1964 until 1973.
It was initially introduced as a hardtop and convertible with the fastback version put on sale in August 1964.

[janice6]

3 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

This is an awesome story, imho.

Gail Wise unknowingly became the first ever Mustang owner when she bought her skylight blue Pony on April 15, 1964, a Wednesday, in Detroit, Michigan, two days before the public even had a chance to see its debut at the World Fair in New York. She was 22 years old, had just graduated from college and had gotten a job as a 3rd grade school teacher. She needed a reliable car to get to and from work. She traded in a $400 Chevy, and she borrowed the rest from her parents to cover the $3,419 price for the car, which was, at that time, over half of her teacher’s salary of $5,100 a year, but understood the car was special. When she got to the dealership, she told the salesman she wanted a convertible but there wasn’t one on the floor. He told her to follow him to the back room where they had the car she bought, the dealership was using it to drive around. “When I drove it down the street, it was like I was a celebrity,” Wise said.
Gail and her husband, Tom, drove the Mustang until 1979 when it started having mysterious problems. “Tom would say, ‘I’ll fix it next week.’ Of course, next week turned into twenty-seven years and four children later,” shared Wise. The couple built an additional garage so they could keep the car, but it sat under a pile of storage for over two decades.
When Tom retired and made time to work on repairing the old Pony, a Google search showed him that the “first ever Mustang owner” bought his car on Thursday April 16th. He and Gail knew that wasn’t right. Fortunately, the couple kept all the original paperwork and documentation from the day Gail purchased it. After some searching in their basement, Tom recovered the documentation that would ultimately become proof that Gail Wise was the first person ever to buy a Ford Mustang.
“We had everything. We didn’t know it was anything special. But we kept the new car invoice, the registered owner’s manual. Tom’s a saver,” said Gail.
So they gathered the paperwork from the sale on Wednesday, April 15th and called up Ford.
Since then, Gail has been recognized as the official first owner of a Mustang. She and Tom travel with the car to auto shows all over the country and enjoy the public spotlight. “I feel like a movie star at 72!,” Wise said. However, Wise has noticed something odd about how the media portrays her: “I think it’s silly when I go on the Internet and all the headlines say, “The first Mustang owner was a WOMAN” she said. “I never felt like I was beneath any man. I remember the sales man telling me that the Mustang was more of a muscle car, but I said, ‘Girls like to have fun, too.’”

The car is estimated to be worth $350,000 to $450,000 today.

Interview with Gail and Tom Wise - 6:35:

The first Mustangs were built in Ford's Dearborn, Michigan factory on March 9 1964 and the car was first shown to the public on April 17 at the New York World's Fair. The first-generation Ford Mustang was manufactured by Ford from March 1964 until 1973.
It was initially introduced as a hardtop and convertible with the fastback version put on sale in August 1964.

I don't know about that one, but my 65 convertible system drive motor was a hydraulic pump to the cylinders working the top.  The back window was vinyl and started scratching the first time you folded the top onto it.  I had to replace it. 

[Eric]

[tous]

Packard?

 

[Eric]

5 minutes ago, tous said:

Packard?

 

Yep. They were such classy cars.

[tous]

On 3/23/2023 at 12:34 PM, Eric said:

How many SJs do you believe are out there still?

 

[tous]

53 minutes ago, Eric said:

Yep. They were such classy cars.

I have always thought that Packard doomed themselves post-war by trying to capture the mid-price range consumer rather than stay with the high end customer.

They made some forgettable automobiles in the 1950s.

But then, Packard didn't have the corporate backstop that Lincoln (Ford) or Cadillac (General Motors) had.

 

[Eric]

39 minutes ago, tous said:

How many SJs do you believe are out there still?

 

Guestimates vary, but there are probably around 330 Duesenberg J & SJ models left. I don't know how many of those are supercharged. I would guess that there are probably more supercharged ones out there now than Dusenberg originally built though, because even if an SJ got totalled, someone saved that supercharger. Plus, people have reproduced the superchargers & plumbing and counterfeited a lot of SJs out of regular J-models. There were around 480 J models produced, but only 35 or so of those where SJs. The amazing thing is how many Model A Duesenbergs were built, versus how many are left. There were more than 650 of them built, but they are a hell of a lot rarer today than J models. It's a shame. They were beautiful cars.

Here are a couple of my favorite Model A Duesenbergs. If Wilford Brimley were a car, he would be that first one. My father helped to fabricate the windshield frame for that second one, when Jerry Moore still owned it.

 

 

[Eric]

25 minutes ago, tous said:

I have always thought that Packard doomed themselves post-war by trying to capture the mid-price range consumer rather than stay with the high end customer.

They made some forgettable automobiles in the 1950s.

But then, Packard didn't have the corporate backstop that Lincoln (Ford) or Cadillac (General Motors) had.

 

I am probably in the minority, but I really like the fifties Packard Clippers. I almost bought one once.

[tous]

1 hour ago, Eric said:

Guestimates vary, but there are probably around 330 Duesenberg J & SJ models left. I don't know how many of those are supercharged. I would guess that there are probably more supercharged ones out there now than Dusenberg originally built though, because even if an SJ got totalled, someone saved that supercharger. Plus, people have reproduced the superchargers & plumbing and counterfeited a lot of SJs out of regular J-models. There were around 480 J models produced, but only 35 or so of those where SJs. The amazing thing is how many Model A Duesenbergs were built, versus how many are left. There were more than 650 of them built, but they are a hell of a lot rarer today than J models. It's a shame. They were beautiful cars.

Here are a couple of my favorite Model A Duesenbergs. If Wilford Brimley were a car, he would be that first one. My father helped to fabricate the windshield frame for that second one, when Jerry Moore still owned it.

 

 

Were there ever any standard Duesenbergs or were they all sold as a chassis and drive train and then completed by the coach builder of the buyer's choice?

Imagine having to wait a year or two for your very expensive automobile.

 

[Eric]

24 minutes ago, tous said:

Were there ever any standard Duesenbergs or were they all sold as a chassis and drive train and then completed by the coach builder of the buyer's choice?

Imagine having to wait a year or two for your very expensive automobile.

 

Every Model J rolling chassis (complete with drivetrain, etc) was built in 1928 & 1929. Those rolling chassis were sold and bodied until the mid-thirties, when ACD went under. The most recent one I ever heard of being sold and built was sold to its owner in 1938 and the car completed in 1940. The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Company must have had cars bodied for them, for their own showrooms, for dealership stocking, etc. I don’t know how many, or which coachbuilders they used. There are a hell of a lot of Duesenbergs bodied by Murphy and Durham. There were quite a few bodied by Beverly as well. If I had to guess which coachbuilder ACD used as a go-to option, I would guess Murphy and/or Durham.

I have never done any research on the inner workings of the ACD Company. I would think they must have had at least some coachbuilding craftsman on their payroll, but I don’t know if they bodied any of their production cars internally. It would be an interesting subject to research though.

The people that waited to have their custom car fabricated were the same people who were willing to wait a year or more for custom shoes, or two or three years for a company like Holland & Holland to build their shotgun. I imagine they had a lot of cool stuff, probably including other custom cars, in various stages of completion at any given time, so there was probably new treats to enjoy pretty regularly. I’ve sat in three different cars that were built or at least modified for Jean Harlow and she was only twenty-five when she died. This 1931 Cadillac of hers was the first car I ever detailed for a car show, when I was twelve or thirteen. I spent three weeks hand-rubbing that paint, before the show.

 

 

[deputy tom]

8 hours ago, Eric said:

I am probably in the minority, but I really like the fifties Packard Clippers. I almost bought one once.

I too liked the 1950's Packard Clippers. Twin sisters, the Zele sisters drove one. They taught my Dad and uncles elementary school back in the 1920's then taught me in the mid 1950's as substitute teachers. tom.

[gwalchmai]

[Eric]

1953 Buick Skylark

 

[pipedreams]

[pipedreams]

[pipedreams]

[pipedreams]

[pipedreams]

[pipedreams]